From the topical “This Is Our Land,’’ Lucas Belvaux’s drama about a far-right politician who recruits a single mother to be the unthreatening face of the party, to films that showcase iconic actresses Catherine Denevue (“The Midwife’’), Juliette Binoche (“Slack Bay’’), and Isabelle Huppert (“False Confessions’’), the 22nd Boston French Film Festival, running July 13-30 at the Museum of Fine Arts, offers a compellingly diverse sampling of contemporary French cinema.
The festival opens with director Martin Bourboulon’s comedy “Divorce French Style’’ in a free outdoor screening — a new venture this year for the MFA — on the museum’s Huntington Avenue lawn at 8 p.m. Laurent Lafitte (“Elle’’) and Marina Foïs (“Polisse’’) play ex-spouses who decide to forge a civil (if volatile) relationship for the sake of their kids. The truce is tested when each gets involved with attractive new partners.
A major curiosity is “False Confessions’’ (July 14 and 15), the last film directed by the late Swiss theater director Luc Bondy, completed by his wife, Marie-Louise Bischofberger. Bondy was directing Marivaux’s classic 1737 play at Paris’s iconic Odeon theater in 2015 when he and the cast decided to adapt the play into a film. The same cast, led by Huppert and featuring Louis Garrel and Bulle Ogier, shot the droll comedy of manners about mistaken identities and thwarted desire during the day while performing the same play in the theater by night.
“This Is Our Land’’ (July 15 and 29) has stirred controversy in France for its depiction of a right-wing politician resembling Marine Le Pen (Catherine Jacob), who persuades provincial nurse and single mother Pauline (Émilie Dequenne) to be her running mate (after instructing Pauline first to dye her hair blond). Apolitical prior to her candidacy, Pauline wrestles with the impact that a troubled economy and hostility between French locals and new immigrants has on her own life and that of the clients she visits as a nurse.
Audiences who missed Olivier Assayas’s intriguing “Personal Shopper’’ during its brief run in theaters earlier this year have another chance to see it, July 14 and 27. The revelatory Kristin Stewart collaborated with Assayas, who directed her to acclaim in “Clouds of Sils Maria’’ (2014). The psychological thriller is about a young woman, Maureen, a medium who works as a personal assistant to a fashion model. Maureen’s life is in a holding pattern as she waits for a sign from her twin brother, who died in the ghostly Paris house Maureen is living in.
“Frantz’’ (July 16 and 28), from popular writer-director François Ozon, also had a limited release in theaters this year. Beautifully shot in black and white, the film is set in Germany and France in the immediate aftermath of World War I and concerns the relationship that develops between two young survivors. Anna (Paula Beer) is a German woman whose fiance, Frantz, was killed in combat. Adrien (Pierre Niney) is a young French soldier. They meet during visits to Frantz’s grave.
One of France’s most gifted actresses — she won the best actress award at the Cannes Film Festival, in 2015, for her performance in “Mon Roi’’ — Emanuelle Bercot is also a prolific director drawn to social issues. Her latest, “150 Milligrams’’ (July 20 and 28), tackles the true story of a high-profile court case involving a weight-loss drug, Mediator, which caused more than 500 deaths in France. Bercot focuses the story on Dr. Iréne Frachon (Sidse Babe Knudsen), who doggedly exposed the coverup by the pharmaceutical company that developed the drug.
What French Film Festival would be complete without a new movie starring the ageless Deneuve? In Martin Provost’s “The Midwife’’ (July 29), she’s Béatrice, a boozy, free-spirited gambler facing her mortality. Béatrice reaches out to her stepdaughter, Claire (Catherine Frot), a divorced midwife struggling with problems of her own. Claire wants little to do with the high-maintenance Béatrice, who left Claire’s father when Claire was a child. But little by little they come to terms with the past and help each other enjoy life in the present.
Go to www.mfa.org/programs/series/the-boston-french-film-festival.
Loren King can be reached at loren.king@comcast.net.
